Traveller519

This is some quality speculation! Thank you! The young women in the cast are so good. I'm loving what they're bringing to the sketches. "Chucky" was terrific, as was the therapist sketch. More sketches with them playing off one another!

The first televised WWF Ladder Match was Shawn Michaels vs Razor Ramon at WrestleMania X in '94. Stampede Wrestling had been doing them from the 70s, though. So we can give them a pass. Some of the wrestlers would have known Stampede Wrestling. I do love the 80s wrestlers. They've really cast them so well. I love that George Steele didn't have to talk but was adequately hairy

Wow, the most focus Calgary has gotten since the Soul Squad visited is on "The Good Place!" Props on putting together an actual CFL field for the scenes they shot there. It would have been easy to just shoot on a normal field. That said, the establishing shots definitely weren't here, but that's fine!

It feels like they're marching George down a dark path here. It was nice to see him happy at the store, but then reality crept in.

There was a good concept for a story there. A whole episode of Adam and Barry getting Erica prepped for her wedding via valuable sibling time and then not showing the wedding (leaving her with words of encouragement before she opens the door to leave, maybe with a "Hi Dad") would have been a clever way to save this. But because this is TV, they have to show the wedding, and everything about it is awkwardly done. I could almost here the editor going "Do you think they'll notice?" I'm struggling to recall what I once liked about this show

Ming-na, rightfully, gets a lot of attention for her appearance in her 50s, but i was amazed to see Wendie Malick is 71. And her face is as expressive as ever! I think the show is very realistically handling a marriage that falls apart. There's still lots of love there, but the challenges of the real world. It can't be easy to write in a comedy, so I appreciate these moments that still show the love and positivity.

What I suspect will happen is ABC has Adam F. Goldberg come back to show run a 13 episode final season. This lets them set up the time slot for a midseason replacement and run a whole campaign around "The Final Season" following a 10 season run. They'll do the "Death of Murray" and, send Barry off to Med School, Erica and Geoff off to their next chapters, a bit of Adam getting ready for Film School, and End the 80s

Man, this episode had some wild ups and downs. Barry and Erica were fantastic, both in their interactions with the Schwartzes and their Valentine's Date. I also enjoyed Adam's "He's out of gas, he's not used to going that long... on the highway" But hoo boy the rest. The JTP laziness felt real, Dave Kim's horrific wig, and the whole notion of Adam and Brea getting back together again is just so bad. I appreciate the struggles with the behind the scenes drama, but maybe that's the queue it's time to end it.

Congrats on finally seeing the light, Brea! I thought she should have dropped Adam a long time ago. I can't think of a single episode about their relationship that was just them enjoying each other's company. It was just and endless cycle of Bev meddling, or Adam doing something stupid and begging for forgiveness. Now, if we can just get Linda, Essie, and especially Virginia to Dump Bev for good, the show can end with us feeling good about people getting the toxic folks out of their lives.

Not a great month for Goldbergs dads. https://pagesix.com/2022/01/02/the-office-star-david-koechner-arrested-for-dui/ We've got our eye on you, Ken Lerner!

Sammy showed up in the last episode. She was the one with the floating walls to be hung that Leon House Husband-ed. I wouldn't have out that together if I didn't watch the credits though. Seeing Bill Hader reminded me I'm ready for Season 3 of "Barry"

Jeff hasn't been shy about discussing the differences between Curb and the Goldbergs in the past. The Curb production is pretty hands off from network interference. HBO lets them do their own thing on their own schedule. There's no way a network sitcom is managed like that. So I'm sure the production team and crew at Curb Your Enthusiasm are people that have worked together for a long time, or know the environment as what constitutes humor. When there's greater buy-in from that angle there's less opportunity for imbalance. Likely a "give as good as you get" approach. Also it seems that with Curb the show is the byproduct of the creative process. A network sitcom is not that. Everyone is out to make as much money as possible. Therefore there's far more people involved including numerous people who aren't comedians or there because they love comedy. From the sounds of things, Jeff was trying to treat the Goldbergs set like the Curb set, and wielding his power to do so. Wendi's comments would indicate he's also been emotionally checked out of the process for the past few years, which would line up with the season already having its 5 season run for syndication, and also his divorce. It's not inconceivable that he just gave up caring then and enjoyed cashing the paycheck so long as they'd let him

Deadline's reporting that Jeff and ABC have reached a settlemt with him exiting the show immediately (sounds like they were most of the way through the season) https://deadline.com/2021/12/jeff-garlin-exit-the-goldbergs-hr-investigations-season-9-1234892030/ That's probably the death knell for the show. We know the real Murray has passed, so maybe they'll work that in for a 13 episode final season, but similar to "American Housewife" last year, I could see this just being too many things piling up and them deciding to pull the plug altogether this year. I'm completely ambivalent about either of those outcomes.

She played Pete's wild card girlfriend in the third season of Crashing. At least that's where I recognised her from. I thought she did a great job here. Her and the Husbands reactions while Larry was "making himself at home" were great and the whole segment had me it stitches. I also loved the button with, "I'm going to have to call my mother and tell her how much I like him"

I actually think Sarah or Melissa could have brought some same energy, but I do have to admit that Kate did a great job and got me to put away my pitchfork that I dug out of the hall closet during the cold open (I set it down during her Christmas Card skit). I'm cool if Kate decides to spend the season popping in for a few shows and primarily doing characters in skits, but I'm over her political impressions, her Update characters, and especially her update characters on Update. Outside of the Cold Open I really liked this episode. The young cast is bringing it!

Marques Ray. He's a working character actor, but interestingly he played the Hotel Clerk/Concierge in the Mexico Wedding epsiode last season. I couldn't tell if he was supposed to be the same guy or a similar looking person that was confusing Larry, or if it was just available casting. While watching last night, I noticed how much Late Stage Curb has become "Baby Boomer Entourage." Larry and his manager drive around LA eating at various high end restaurants with their various friends and occasionally work on a project/pitch a studio. There are many cameos by celebrities playing themselves and cameos by celebrities not famous enough to play themselves. Larry has a romantic interest that typically lasts a single episode but never more than a few. No matter the stakes, all the real issues are rich people problems.

After the huge letdown that was the first part of season 5. I liked this one. Very Chuck focused. But that felt like it followed some good beats. For a C plot, I actually liked how they wrapped up Taylor's story about not knowing yourself when the money comes.

With respect to Nate's character arc, I think we all need to "[remain] curious, not judgmental." We know the tenor of the show. Outside of Rupert, there's really no one that can be completely wrote off. I saw Nate approaching Will at the end of the episode as similar to Rebecca's walking out on the team after the sacrifice in Season 1, Episode 6. Right as we think we're turning the corner, we're dragged back on some of the character's worst impulses. Continuing with the Season's thematic through-line of Ted being somewhat ineffectual as he battles with his own Mental health, while elevating the stories of the other characters, it will be interesting to see how the show chooses to address Nate's required change. There are interesting avenues it can be pursued with Roy, Beard, Rebecca, or even Higgins.

Definitely the best episode of Season 2. They really started hitting the beats. It built well off last week's episode, was one of the funnier episodes and did all things Ted Lasso well. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Sam being on the other end of Rebecca's Bantr chat. Obviously they've done a lot to set up their friendship, which is great. If they were going to push the romantic angle I'd kind of hope they build on that, as opposed to this avenue. That said, it facilitates the "deep conversation" that may not have been possible in an employer/employee dynamic. Great work not showing Ted from the time he left the field until the very last scene. The ambiguity while everything else was going on was a well constructed thing. Like Rebecca, we have to take everything happening at Face Value while secretly fearing the worst. Yeah, that was the same as last week. Pretty cool that the writing staff trusts the audience enough to know how this played out without a scene that would have been necessary to do the same. It's definitely going to come up again to pay off Chekov's Financial Statements.

The fact that Andre Braugher, Ted Danson, and Nick Offerman have all gone 0-fer in their roles on Schur shows at the Emmys is just ridiculous in my (obviously biased) opinion. All have been perfect supporting character's for their respective shows' leads and damn funny in their own rights. This season especially, he has the most weight to carry in the "Defund the Police" balancing act the show needs to carry. It may not be his best work on the show (Season 2, for me) but it will likely be his most important.

I read Rachel's decision as being one out of fear as much as anything. "I can be happy" said through the most strained emotional output. She's looking at the prospect of needing to execute a divorce from an obsessive sociopath who has just faced no consequences for killing someone she knows he had a grudge with ms she asked him to leave alone. That seems terrifying

I don't know where we're going, yet, but I'm strangely engrossed by everyone's story. I do wonder if we're going to get a Shane redemption of sort to come. He's the only one who's seemed devoid of positive traits thus far.

The phrase MadCap comes to mind. But.... I kind of love it? It seemed like everyone was having A LOT of fun.

The show probably could have weathered one of the effects of COVID adjusted shooting, changing actors of a principal character, adjusted stories required due to child graduation, or the backstage accusations and resulting changes in executives and cast-members. However, all of that hitting the show together likely tanked what was a perpetual bubble show. The season felt pretty uninspired. I thought Giselle did a good job taking over, and by the end of the run they were finally starting to find some chemistry with the new friends, but the writing just never seemed to be on point. It will be interesting to see what Mixon goes onto next. This was obviously her most complete character given it was a staring role, but it had started to become old hat. I'd like to see her do some more drama.

Strong reliable show all around, which was a welcome treat after last week. Good use of most of the cast too. Great to see Melissa get some run. I've been watching previous season sketches and everytime she shows up she's so strong.